Having recently shown up on Netflix (at least in October of 2025), I was curious to revisit the Frank Langella version of Dracula made at the end of the 1970s. In the early 1990s, Francis Ford Coppola made his version of the story, calling it Bram Stoker's Dracula, also available on the same streaming service (at least, in October of 2025!).
Dracula (1979) directed by John Badham
This telling of the famous Bram Stoker novel consolidates a lot. The film starts on the Exeter, the ship taking the boxes of earth, one of which contains Count Dracula (Frank Langella), to Whitby, England. The on-ship action includes the slaughter of the crew and hints of the demonic presence of Dracula. The ship eventually wrecks on the beach of Whitby (which is not a tourist beach--there's plenty of rocks and wood mucking it up). The wreck is spotted from Doctor Seward's (Donald Pleasance) sanatorium, where his daughter Lucy (Kate Nelligan) assists her dad in dealing with the lunatics. She's also helping out Mina Van Helsing (Jan Francis), a woman in a delicate state but also a family friend. Mina races down to the beach and helps the Count escape the sunlight. She returns to her friends but has the vampire's charm on her. Dracula's crates and things are recovered from the wreckage and taken to Carfax Abbey, which is on the outskirts of Whitby and not far at all from the sanatorium. Dracula sets up house thanks to Harker (Trevor Eve) who is engaged to Lucy. Dracula fairly quickly kills off Mina, which forces Seward to write to her father (Laurence Olivier) to come for the burial. The elder Van Helsing quickly discovers what is going on, i.e. a vampire is in their midst, and starts the confrontations that lead to the film's ambiguous ending (more on that in a bit in case you don't want a spoiler).
Badham directs the film with both a very 1970s and a very Gothic style. The hair is big on almost everyone and the sets are a bit extreme, with Carfax Abbey already having plenty of cobwebs, gargoylic sculptures, and creepy atmosphere. The cobwebs aren't removed when Dracula moves in! This story is set in the early 1900s, so Harker has an automobile, though it is the only one around. The lunatic asylum sanatorium is full of crazy people who are more or less compassionately cared for. Eventually Lucy and Renfield (Tony Haygarth in a very minimal role) are locked away, something that doesn't keep the Count away. Dracula is romantically infatuated with Lucy, promising to make her his primary bride. Together they will restore his race (not sure if that's Transylvanians or vampires). The young Langella (who had played Dracula to great success on the stage) is quite beguiling in the role. He delivers a balance of charm and menace that viewers don't see in a lot of other Draculas (or indeed, other vampires). He's as much a tragic Gothic hero as he is a villain. The ending also has 1970s ambiguity, where Dracula is hauled up into the sunlight sails of the ship he's trying to escape in. He physically degrades quite a bit but then something drifts off like a bat or a glider, with the seemingly-cured Lucy looking up and giving an enigmatic smile. Is she really cured or is she happy that Dracula has made some sort of escape? He didn't burst into flames, something that happens to his bat version when he is briefly exposed to sunlight in a Carfax Abbey fight, so viewers are left with an indefinite state.
The movie has a lot of charm. The visual flares contrast with the down-to-earth minimalism of the rest of the show. Having most of the characters related is an interesting choice, making the story less sprawling than the book. Putting all the action in Whitby is an interesting choice too, making me wonder if they were trying to save on locations or on complications to the storyline. No part of the movie is set in London or in Transylvania. The movie starts and ends on ships, a nice bookend to the narrative. Even though this was based on Langella's stage play, the movie is not at all stagey, with plenty of outdoor locations and good effects (especially Dracula scaling walls like Spider-man). I enjoyed the film for its sense of individuality, for hitting a lot of marks without being a slavish copy of other versions.
Recommended for Dracula fans.
A prologue set in the 1400s shows Vlad Dracul (Gary Oldman) fighting back the Muslim hordes and defending Christian Europe, only to have the love of his life Elisabeta (Winona Ryder) commit suicide when she believes a false note claiming he died. When the priest (Anthony Hopkins) says she is damned to Hell and cannot have a Christian burial, Vlad loses it and swears to return from his own death to wreak havoc on the world. The story then jumps to the late 1800s, where Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves) is betrothed to Mina (Winona Ryder again) but thinks he is not ready because he is not wealthy enough and he's a bit of a milquetoast. He gets the job to go to Transylvania and complete the paperwork for Count Dracula's purchase of several houses in London, promising more money. Harker and Mina agree to wed once he gets back. Mina stays with her rich friend Lucy (Sadie Frost) who is very sexual and is courting three men: Doctor Jack Seward (Richard E. Grant), Texan Quincy Morris (Bill Campbell), and Lord Arthur Holmwood (Cary Elwes). She flirts with them all but intends to go for the money, aka the good Lord Holmwood.
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) directed by Francis Ford Coppola
A prologue set in the 1400s shows Vlad Dracul (Gary Oldman) fighting back the Muslim hordes and defending Christian Europe, only to have the love of his life Elisabeta (Winona Ryder) commit suicide when she believes a false note claiming he died. When the priest (Anthony Hopkins) says she is damned to Hell and cannot have a Christian burial, Vlad loses it and swears to return from his own death to wreak havoc on the world. The story then jumps to the late 1800s, where Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves) is betrothed to Mina (Winona Ryder again) but thinks he is not ready because he is not wealthy enough and he's a bit of a milquetoast. He gets the job to go to Transylvania and complete the paperwork for Count Dracula's purchase of several houses in London, promising more money. Harker and Mina agree to wed once he gets back. Mina stays with her rich friend Lucy (Sadie Frost) who is very sexual and is courting three men: Doctor Jack Seward (Richard E. Grant), Texan Quincy Morris (Bill Campbell), and Lord Arthur Holmwood (Cary Elwes). She flirts with them all but intends to go for the money, aka the good Lord Holmwood.
While Lucy is vamping it up and Mina is shocked and coy, Harker's trip to the count's castle is plagued with wolves and supernatural visions. When he arrives, the count is alone and starts manipulating Harker after the count sees a photo of Mina. She looks just like his lost love, so why shouldn't he pursue her? After harrowing experiences with the count and his three vampire brides, Harker is left a prisoner in the castle so Dracula has a head start on causing trouble in London. He departs with crates of Transylvanian soil.
The story plays out in a familiar fashion as Dracula consumes Lucy and woos Mina. Both women are conflicted about the count. Lucy likes the lustiness but doesn't understand what's happening to her. Mina meets Dracula on the street. He presents himself as a foreign prince (so she won't connect him to the missing Harker) and she is fascinated by him even as she struggles to remain faithful to Harker. The situation becomes even more chaotic once Seward calls on his mentor, Van Helsing (Anthony Hopkins again), to help diagnose what's going on with Lucy. Van Helsing immediately susses out a vampire and starts the series of epic showdowns as the men try to stop the vampire.
The movie does a good job presenting the epistolary narrative of the novel, with the characters recording events and observations along the way in voiceover fashion. It has an epic sweep, with the historic prologue and the travels from Transylvania to England to Transylvania for the finale.
The acting is a mixed bag. Winona Ryder gives the best performance though she has the thankless task of constantly vacillating between the count and her husband, with some less believable moments that are due to the script, not her. Hopkins manages to chew more scenery than Oldman. Oldman's Dracula goes through so many different incarnations--the old guy in Transylvania, the wolfman on the ship, the young and dashing count with Elisabeta/Mina, a bat-like form, etc. etc. All the hullabaloo makes his character over-the-top and hard to take seriously. If he had a handlebar mustache, he would certainly twirl it. Reeves is good but not great as Harker; Elwes is surprisingly flat in his role. Most of the women besides Mina have plenty of topless scenes in keeping with the movie's visual tone.
The movie as a whole is very stylized to the point of feeling overproduced. The music is heavy-handed, which is okay for a supernatural melodrama. The visuals leave nothing for viewers to figure out or remember, with so many overlapping images of previous scenes or other situations as if viewers forgot about how Elisabeta and Mina look the same (among other reminders). Seward's insane asylum has guards with cages on their heads, presumably to protect them from headshots by the incarcerated. Renfield (Tom Waits) is there with Eraserhead hair and an extra-long straightjacket. He seems intended more to set an atmosphere of over-the-top horror but he's too far over, weakening what could be an interesting character. Did I mention the plethora of topless women? The whole situation is so overdone, it looks a bit ridiculous.
Barely recommended--they tried too hard with this one, as if it was made for teenage boys.
Which is better?
Obviously, I like the Langella film better. It has some originality while being faithful to the original tale, without going so far over the top.Winner:
Loser:
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